My Parents' Dream

A long time ago my folks bought 10 acres of what used to be the some of the most prized land on the Flake family ranch. For my entire life they've dreamed of retiring there and living out their days beneath the majestic Ponderosa Pines and breathtaking Arizona sunsets.

The following picture was taken elsewhere on the ranch, but for most of my life their land looked something like this:
Two evergreen hills gently sloped toward a valley with a seasonal brook winding playfully through the clearing at the bottom.

Sadly 6 or 7 years ago two fires consumed the Mogollon Rim country and converged right over our heaven on earth, sending my parent's dreams up in the smoke. All their trees were destroyed. The resulting flooding made a terrible mess of the wreckage.

The blessing is that while the fire scratched out quite a bit of the several hundred acres that make up the Flake family ranch, out of 30 or 40 homes and structures only 3 were destroyed. My grandma's home and building's were spared. The fire kind of arced around that area. Even so, my parents were devastated for their loss.

Since that time they've poured countless hours and dollars into restoring their land to it's former beauty. They realize they probably won't ever see it come to fruition. They're doing it for their grandkids. Each year the evidence of that terrible fire fades, and growth begets more growth. Slowly my parents are winning this battle, and the land will be beautiful again.

This is part of their little valley, taken this year:

Not all of the stags have been cleared yet, but you can see the young Juniper trees (in the background) are thriving. In the foreground is a small grove of baby Ponderosas. Hopefully one day, my parent's house will overlook this little patch of trees.

I think this tree is particularly beautiful. He's battled all the way up to 4' tall!

You can see that while the far hill in this picture has been cleared, there's still a lot of trees to burn. What you can't see is that that hill is covered will hundreds of Ponderosa saplings. Each one planted lovingly (in the rockiest soil God ever created!) by my parents. As often as possible they make the 13 hour drive down here to drag a water tank on a trailer around and tend their "children."





My cute mom loves each of these trees and often tells them so. She gives them pep talks and kisses and hugs. That's how we know this endeavor will be successful. What self-respecting plant could resist such attention?









This guy is the basketball star of the group, towering a mighty 5 feet above the earth!

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In an effort to make positive use of the old, dead trees, my hubby and mom decided to build a fence around my parent's land.

Ben, my father, and my brother, Russ never get enough time to work on this project as they'd like, but they've done well with the time they've had.

They cut each log to the right length and carve out a niche, so that they nest when stacked. Then these tough guys pre-drill through the first couple of logs and use a sledge to pound re-bar down through the joints.

Notice how the little sapling in front of the fence has been flagged. The boys take extra care not to disturb these precious babies.






This picture was taken from the road that enters the valley. Dominating the right side of the photo is a post that will one day be part of the entryway arch to the valley. The fence corners close to the top of "Sapling Hill."









This picture was taken from the corner of Sapling Hill. See how the road forks just before it enters my parent's land? The lower road drives down into the valley, and the upper road crests the opposite hill. My parent's want to build their home just to the left of this picture, on that hill, between the two roads.



Here's some pictures of the client, the contractor, and the crew. Good job you guys! Its looking great!

Thanks for letting me post your pics too, MandaLou.